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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27893443">Monsters Begetting Monsters</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/abrandnewboom/pseuds/abrandnewboom'>abrandnewboom</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>SHINee</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Creatures &amp; Monsters, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Anal Sex, Blood, Blood Drinking, Character Turned Into Vampire, Dubious Consent, Extremely Dubious Consent, Infantilism, M/M, Mental Coercion, Monsterfucking, Monsters, Oral Sex, Sexual Coercion, Top Lee Taemin, Vampire Bites, Vampire Sex, Vampire Turning, Vampires</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 16:47:01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>8,488</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27893443</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/abrandnewboom/pseuds/abrandnewboom</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Taemin brings home a new fledgling. Minho thinks his parenting skills leave much to be desired.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Choi Minho/Kim Jonghyun, Choi Minho/Kim Jonghyun/Lee Taemin, Choi Minho/Lee Taemin, Kim Jonghyun/Lee Taemin</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>29</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Monsters Begetting Monsters</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Inspired by Married to the Music. </p>
<p>Originally posted to asianfanfics.com in March 2016 under the username dibidibidisx (yes, this is my fic).</p>
<p>Please check the tags before reading.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was a particularly hot night that Taemin brought their new baby home. He wasn't crying when Taemin carried him over the threshold, but that was only because he was practically dead.</p>
<p>Minho was sitting in the back windowsill, bent over his phone as usual. There was a game on, and though it wasn't any of the teams he usually followed, it was a pleasant enough way to spend a warm summer night.</p>
<p>"Minho..." Taemin had called through the apartment after the telltale slam of the front door had already betrayed his entrance.</p>
<p>"Yah," Minho muttered in answer, eyes fixed on the ball.</p>
<p>"Minho, look."</p>
<p>His voice was closer now, no point in getting up. "Yah," Minho repeated himself.</p>
<p>Taemin was rustling around in the front rooms, the clink of a stray chain and the drag of furniture over carpet clear indicators that Taemin was settling in for the night, unlikely to go out again.</p>
<p>"Yah," Minho said again, just in case he'd missed one of Taemin's calls. Taemim wasn't the kind of creature to stand on ceremony, but he was still Minho's superior, and loathe to put up with being ignored for longer than two minutes.</p>
<p>"Minho," Taemin wheedled from the doorway of the lounge, finally.</p>
<p>"What is it?"</p>
<p>"Minho, I got us a baby."</p>
<p>Minho's head snapped up. "You what!?"</p>
<p>Taemin beckoned him over, his grin displaying pink tinged teeth still long with excitement. He slipped back into the lounge and skittered ahead of Minho to stand over a bundle of blood flecked cotton in front of the chaise. It was a boy, as it usually was with Taemin, and when Taemin lifted his head up by a fistful of ratty white blond hair, he was clearly unconscious, which was a little unusual for Taemin.</p>
<p>The kid was at least twenty, thank god.</p>
<p>"He was making too much noise," Taemin said defensively, as if he could read Minho's thoughts.</p>
<p>Minho wrinkled his forehead and pulled the human's formerly white v-neck away from the sticky dark blood that had rolled down and dried on his collarbones.  There were no less than three barely closed gouges in his throat.</p>
<p>"Where did you even get him?" Minho asked, shaking his head at the mess.</p>
<p>"Just in the street," Taemin said cryptically. "He was already practically unconscious. Drunk."</p>
<p>"Uh huh." Minho said, "so you decided to stop to snack three times on the way back?"</p>
<p>"Got hungry on the way home." Taemin smiled. "Anyway," he went on, wrapping the chain Minho had heard him rattling earlier around his captive's calf. "He's going to stay with us now."</p>
<p>"Sure," Minho said, slowly. "If that's what you want." He shrugged and took his phone out again. "I'll be in the back window if you need help."</p>
<p>Minho's team won the match, just barely, though the countdown got uncomfortably close to dawn for Minho's liking. He had to pull the blinds and shelter in the shade of a kitchen cupboard in order to make it to the final whistle.</p>
<p>Grinning, Minho cleared away his used cups and gave the bench a cursory wipe. Then he checked the locks, turned off all the lights, and pulled aside the bedroom floorboards.</p>
<p>His pleased humming halted when he realised somebody was in his spot.</p>
<p>"Hurry up," Taemin flapped at him, squinting. He had dragged the human into their sleeping space.</p>
<p>"Where am I supposed to sleep?" Minho complained.</p>
<p>"He's skinny," Taemin said, squeezing at the kid's waist. "And I don't want him waking up alone in the day."</p>
<p>Minho thought it pretty unlikely, seeing as the kid was obviously so drained that he'd gone a sort of grey papery shade, and Taemin had to occasionally check whether he was still breathing.</p>
<p>It was a bit gross, like sleeping next to your leftover takeout. The only plus was that Taemin latched onto the human as he slept instead of twisting Minho up in his terrifyingly strong noodle limbs.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The kid was out cold for the best part of two days, and it probably didn't help that Minho kept catching Taemin with him tumbled into a messy bundle in his lap, lips fixed around the  still unclosed wounds on his neck.</p>
<p>"That's disgusting," Minho reminded him. In the hopes of setting a good example, he went into the kitchen and took a chilled blood bag from the refrigerator.</p>
<p>"Look," Minho said, tearing the corner and pouring his own dinner into a mug. "This is why we have a fridge. Sanitary blood, nice and cool on a summer night."</p>
<p>Taemin made a disgusted noise into his human's neck. He finished cleaning up the bite, giving it a last lick. He let the boy loll onto the carpet, switching his attention to cleaning off his hands and the smears around his mouth like a cat.</p>
<p>"I don't drink dead blood," he said, once his fangs had retracted naturally, and his hands were clean (by Taemin's standards, not Minho's). "I don't know how you can swallow it cold either, like a ghoul or something."</p>
<p>"There's nothing wrong with ghouls," Minho sighed.</p>
<p>Taemin wrinkled his nose. "Not socially, I suppose, but they hoard flesh for so long. It's just gross."</p>
<p>"I'll be sure to let Key know about how gross you think he is," Minho said dryly.</p>
<p>"He knows," Taemin said, prodding lazily at the human boy. He seemed to be rousing in small increments.</p>
<p>"Wh-where am I?" The words seemed reluctant to leave his parched throat, and no wonder, at the rate Taemin had been draining him of fluids.</p>
<p>Minho almost offered him his mug before he remembered, and doubled back into the kitchen for another mug, this one full of water.</p>
<p>"You're really pretty," Minho told him kindly, holding the cup steady as he sipped in short desperate swallows. "What's your name?"</p>
<p>The human swallowed a mouthful, eyes closed in relief. "Jonghyun," he managed to choke out around the liquid.</p>
<p>"That's a nice name," Minho praised him.</p>
<p>The human eyed him suspiciously, water trickling down his chin. "Why can't I move properly?" He whispered.</p>
<p>Minho nodded in sympathy. "Taemin's mouth is full of paralytic venom. It keeps you nice and slow so he can catch you easily."</p>
<p>Taemin smiled, taking one of Jonghyun's wrists and flopping it gently. "Soon you might bite back," he said, grinning. "You've almost had enough of my venom."</p>
<p>Jonghyun's eyes widened. "What - what are you?"</p>
<p>"Vampires," Taemin said, as if it were obvious. He rubbed his long fingers over Jonghyun's punctured neck. "Remember this?"</p>
<p>Before Minho could seize him by the shoulders he swooped down and slurped at Jonghyun's throat, sealing his lips around the still livid wounds.</p>
<p>Jonghyun froze in place, letting out a terrified scream even as he visibly shivered and extended the long line of his neck in submission.</p>
<p>When Taemin pulled away again, leaving Jonghyun's throat slick with pink residue of diluted venomous saliva and blood, Jonghyun sagged sideways into an faint. The front of his pants were conspicuously stained pale, and he twitched helplessly even as he slid into an exhausted unconsciousness.</p>
<p>"That was a little too much," Minho said, picking up the cup Jonghyun had dropped. "We barely learnt anything about him."</p>
<p>Taemin shrugged, shuffling back to his preferred sofa, leaving Jonghyun where he lay.</p>
<p>"Sure we did," he said, switching on the television. "His name is Jonghyun, he's still sane, and his body is reacting appropriately to my venom. What else would you need to know about a fledgling?"</p>
<p>Taemin's eyes widened a little as he channel surfed right onto the Ancient Aliens marathon that Minho had been trying to avoid him discovering.</p>
<p>"You're a brat," Minho muttered. He dragged Jonghyun out of his tripping hazard position in the direct middle of the room. He rolled him into recovery position on his side. His pulse was strong, if still somewhat speedy. Luckily, Taemin was thorough with his tongue. Even the reopened gashes on his neck had closed over again, and were already looking well on their way to healed.</p>
<p>Minho sighed and fetched himself another mug of chilled blood before settling against Taemin's side for a few mindless hours of conspiracy theories.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>"He cries," Taemin said, wiping his mouth of Minho's thick dark blood with his black velvet sleeve. "Like, all the time. What's up with that?"</p>
<p>Minho tilted his head reproachfully. "Why do you think he cries all the time?" he said after a pause in which Taemin made it abundantly clear that he would be making no attempt to think of any possible reasons for Jonghyun's depression. "Do you think it could be related to how you basically kidnapped him from the street, and you've kept him chained up in a basement for a week whenever we're not feeding from him?"</p>
<p>Taemin made the frustrated expression he always made when Minho asked him to explain anything beyond a simple command.</p>
<p>"You don't see any problems with that?" Minho said slowly, rubbing at the incisions on his neck until they healed over completely.</p>
<p>"But he doesn't try to leave," Taemin pointed out. "And also, it's not a basement. We live in a very nice sub-street flat."</p>
<p>"You just heard Key saying that on the phone." Minho said. "Unbelievably, it sounds even more ridiculous when you say it."</p>
<p>Taemin waved his hands  dismissively. "It's nice in here. Dark, cool, who wouldn't like it?" He settled  back into his favourite old chaise lounge, the one he liked to lay on when he fed from Minho.</p>
<p>Jonghyun sniffled distantly in the other room, and Taemin's head jerked up, his eyes narrowing.</p>
<p>"He doesn't even try to escape," Taemin complained again.</p>
<p>"You're like a billion years old, a foot taller than him, you dress like a slobby Satanist-"</p>
<p>"Excuse me?"</p>
<p>"- and he clearly thinks you're going to suck him dry and then slowly pick the flesh off of his bones," Minho finished, throwing his hands up.</p>
<p>Taemin looked mildly offended. "I'm not a ghoul. Ugh, stringy muscle."</p>
<p>"I'm just saying." Minho said, throwing himself down in the armchair opposite Taemim. "You're intimidating." He pulled his collar up snugly around his throat, covering up every inch of smooth immortal skin, and the double Adam's apple that Taemin was so fond of grazing his incisors over.</p>
<p>"Myeh myeh myeh," Taemin mimicked him under his breath, pretending that he wasn't preening over being called intimidating. "Fine." He hauled himself upright and slipped into the bedroom.</p>
<p>"Quit blubbering," he said to Jonghyun.</p>
<p>"Taemin!" Minho called out in disbelief.</p>
<p>"Fine," Taemin muttered.</p>
<p>"What's wrong, fledgling? Are you hungry?"</p>
<p>Jonghyun's lip trembled.</p>
<p>"Thirsty?" Taemin guessed. "Uh, hmm. Lonely? You can watch TV with us, I guess."</p>
<p>"Let me go home," Jonghyun hiccupped, turning his big wet eyes on Taemin. They were extremely compelling.</p>
<p>Taemin smiled. "Well done!" He said, in an encouraging tone. "That would definitely work on a human."</p>
<p>Jonghyun's eyes welled up again. At this rate it wouldn't surprise Taemin if the kid really was dehydrated, like Minho kept needlessly fussing.</p>
<p>"Why won't you let me go home?" Jonghyun tried again.</p>
<p>Taemin patted his lank hair. "Because I picked you," he said, as if that explained everything. "Good news! Once I'm finished with making you, nothing will hurt anymore, I promise. Maybe even by tomorrow morning!"</p>
<p>He grinned widely, expectant of praise.</p>
<p>"What about my family?" Jonghyun asked in between hard sucks of air. His lip quivered and his eyes shone with the promise of further deluge.</p>
<p>"We're your family, now," Taemin said, confused. Minho had never asked these silly questions when he'd taken him in from the cold streets. "Minho and me. You're going to be like, our baby vampire." That made sense.  Key and Jinki and that strange walking hand of his could be his weird uncles or something. They were practically children themselves, compared to Taemin, but they didn't cry and wail like this infant-like human.</p>
<p>Predictably, Jonghyun cried even harder.</p>
<p>Taemin sighed. "You know what would quiet you down," he said, thoughtfully, "a drink."</p>
<p>He reached for Jonghyun, dragging at his chain to pull him out of the musty corner he had jammed himself into. "Come on," he said.</p>
<p>Taemin pulled Jonghyun into his lap on the floor, one arm wrapping around the humans waist and pinning his arms to his sides, the other patting softly at Jonghyun's head like you would a startled animal. He smoothed Jonghyun's bleached fringe out of his face and followed his ruffled hair to his jaw and then the sore, welted throat he had been sipping from for the last few days. The first bites were flat and nearly healed, the freshest wounds closed but still livid and swollen from his paralytic venom.</p>
<p>Jonghyun's head tipped back, instinctive in his submission, despite the tears coming yet thicker and faster. He was shivering in Taemin's hold even as his blood pulsed in clear recognition of the vampire's proximity.</p>
<p>Taemin dipped his face, just to scent the blood-</p>
<p>"Don't drink from him again," Minho bellowed from the lounge. "He's a human, not a punchbowl."</p>
<p>"He likes it now," Taemin complained, petting Jonghyun's hair more just to feel him shiver and wriggle a little in his lap. His arousal was obvious through his filthy grey sweatpants.</p>
<p>"Because you've drunk from him too often! You know that!" Minho chided him.</p>
<p>Taemin huffed, but retracted his fangs. "Come on," he said, hauling Jonghyun up by his torn and bloodied sleeve, "Minho probably wants to bathe you, or something equally domestic."</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Minho did think that getting the poor kid clean might be a nice break in his days of acting as a glorified juice box.</p>
<p>He glowered at Taemin as the blood he was sluicing over Jonghyun's shoulders stained the bath water pink. "You're disgusting when you feed. What a waste of poor baby's blood."</p>
<p>Jonghyun ducked his head at the epithet, shrinking away from Minho's gentle hands for a moment.</p>
<p>"See," Taemin said, pointing accusingly. "I knew you wanted a baby."</p>
<p>"Hmm," Minho murmured noncommittally, pouring strawberry bubble bath into the stream of warm tap water.</p>
<p>"Come on, <em>baby</em>," Taemin coaxed. He stirred the water so the pink tinged bubbles would foam up faster, then dumped a handful on Jonghyun's downturned head. "Clean yourself up."</p>
<p>Jonghyun frowned, but rubbed halfheartedly at his leg. "You made the mess," he said, voice just more than a whisper.</p>
<p>Minho laughed delightedly, slapping a cloth into Taemin's hands. "You're absolutely right," he told Jonghyun. He elbowed Taemin until his sire started petulantly scrubbing Jonghyun's back.</p>
<p>Jonghyun arched into the touch, flushing when the cloth slid around under his arms to his chest.</p>
<p>"He likes that," Taemin said gleefully, trading places with Minho to reach right around to where he could rub the suds over the human's nipples.</p>
<p>Jonghyun shivered in the hot water, struggling to keep his eyes on the bubbles, rather than Taemin's terrifying dark eyes. He watched the sodden cloth slide down his tense stomach instead, jumping slightly when Taemin rubbed over his sharp hipbones.</p>
<p>He hadn't eaten or sipped water in days now, and every bone and vein in him was stark beneath his skin. Strangely, he wasn't hungry. At least not for any food he could picture. The only times he had even thought about consuming anything had been...when Taemin and Minho touched him.</p>
<p>Minho popped the lid on a shiny blue bottle, and poured liquid into his palm. "Let's get the bloodstains out of your hair," he said kindly. Jonghyun leaned obediently into his hands, closing his eyes as he kneaded at his stiff hair.</p>
<p>Taemin didn't stop his ministrations with the cloth, rubbing over the same skin methodically, like he was enjoying the repetition more than anything else.</p>
<p>Minho tipped handful after handful of water over his hair, one hand securely wrapped around the nape of his neck. It felt like more of a reassurance than a warning.</p>
<p>Not that Jonghyun had thought of even moving without permission. As the thought came to him in the bath he rationally agreed that it was odd. But Minho's gentle hand on his neck, and Taemin's sting in his throat only served to remind him that he was supposed to stay still for now.</p>
<p>"Oh," Taemin said, nostrils flaring slightly. "He's going into rut."</p>
<p>Minho tipped Jonghyun back further to rinse the conditioner out of his hair, holding Jonghyun tightly by the nape so that his shivers of arousal didn't slide him under the bathwater.</p>
<p>Jonghyun felt Taemin's fading bites pulse warmly, and he shuddered with his whole body, bucking helplessly into Taemin's greedy, wet hands.</p>
<p>"I told you not to drink from him so often," Minho gritted out, doing his best to keep Jonghyun's thighs together and in the bath despite the subconscious rolls of his bony hips.</p>
<p>Taemin shrugged. "It was going to happen sooner or later. You know how much fun humans are when you tease them."</p>
<p>"I remember," Minho said.</p>
<p>"Help him," Taemin said to Minho. "You know how he feels."</p>
<p>Minho sighed. "Not for years," he reminded him, but he left Jonghyun under Taemin's hands to rummage in the cabinets under the sink regardless.</p>
<p>Jonghyun let out another keening cry, his head rolling back as Taemin stroked at his soapy nethers.</p>
<p>"You're clean enough now, aren't you, baby," Taemin purred.  </p>
<p>"Please," Jonghyun choked out, damp hands clawing feebly at Taemin's sweatpants clad thighs over the edge of the tub. "Master?"</p>
<p>Taemin purred in approval, smirking over Jonghyun's prostrate body at Minho.</p>
<p>"He's quick," Minho muttered.</p>
<p>"It took you a decade," Taemin reminded him callously. "You missed out on a whole decade of fledgling development."</p>
<p>"I turned out just fine," Minho countered. He demonstrated by pulling the plug and lifting Jonghyun out of the tub and onto the damp mat.</p>
<p>Taemin hummed and passed him another towel. "You are a pretty good familiar," he allowed.</p>
<p>Minho snorted and started briskly drying Jonghyun's flailing extremities.</p>
<p>"This one, though," Taemin appraised Jonghyun with satisfaction. "He's definitely a prime fledgling."</p>
<p>Jonghyun's head snapped up, and he hissed at Minho's towel wrapped hands savagely.</p>
<p>"Master," he whimpered again, hands reaching as his eyes began to leak anew.</p>
<p>Taemin's lip curled a little. "I forgot how annoying fledglings are."</p>
<p>Minho laughed and punished Jonghyun with an extended hair ruffling. "Did you want to turn him on the sofa?"</p>
<p>"Yes," Taemin said. He wiped his hands on the stack of clean towels behind him, and slipped out, ignoring Jonghyun's extended cries for him.</p>
<p>"Let's get you ready," Minho said soothingly. He folded the towel and laid it out so Jonghyun could fall flat against it. "Your master will look after you soon enough," he said, spreading Jonghyun's thighs with care. "You don't want him to be upset with you, do you?"</p>
<p>"No, no," Jonghyun agreed, squirming back and forward on his back.</p>
<p>He'd changed quickly, Minho noted. He was still afraid of the two of them, obviously, but his fear had shifted its form. Taemin's venom was more potent than Minho had given him credit. The human boy was crazed with it, and it seemed that all he would be able to care about for the foreseeable future would be resolving his bone deep yearning to take in vampire fluids.</p>
<p>"You're smart," Minho told Jonghyun, rubbing lubricant perfunctorily between his legs and into the tight pucker of his asshole. "I wouldn't call him master for years, no matter how hard my dick got. It really pissed him off."</p>
<p>Jonghyun arched upwards impatiently and did his best to press down onto Minho's gentle hands. He yelped when more than a fingertip proved too much for him.</p>
<p>"Hey," Minho chided him, grinning. "You're too eager. Plenty of time for that later."</p>
<p>Minho pinned his hips to the floor and stretched him open properly, conceding to Jonghyun's eagerness with the addition of a second finger.</p>
<p>"Please," Jonghyun whimpered, reaching for Minho's bulging jeans, "inside me now?"</p>
<p>Minho couldn't help giving him a smile. "Alright, but only for a second," he warned him. "You need Taemin's venom, not mine, or you'll turn out funny."</p>
<p>Jonghyun's already dilated eyes widened. "Taemin!" he begged. "Please?"</p>
<p>Minho sighed. "Just...hush. Be grateful for what you get."</p>
<p>He unzipped his pants and eased himself out carefully. Jonghyun caught sight of his swollen dick and started visibly salivating. There was no doubt that he was in rut.</p>
<p>Holding Jonghyun open and still, Minho pressed in slowly, refusing to give into Jonghyun's desperate hitching of his hips.</p>
<p>"There," he said, satisfied with the full slide. Jonghyun squirmed in answer, trying now to kick Minho's hands away so he could get his legs around his waist for leverage.</p>
<p>"No, baby," Minho sighed, rocking guiltily into the human's warmth a few times to stretch him out. Jonghyun breathed hard, squeezing around him, instinctively pleading for his come.</p>
<p>It came close to happening when Minho accidentally slid deeper than he'd intended on a stretching thrust, and Jonghyun let out a soft choking gasp.</p>
<p>"Yes," he moaned.</p>
<p>His whole body tensed up around Minho's length, and Minho had to grit his elongated teeth and gently pull out with no small amount of reluctance. "No, baby. Let me go, Jonghyun." Minho insisted.</p>
<p>Fledglings were so needy and good smelling at this stage. All monstrous  urges wrapped up in the mortal scents of fresh blood and sex.</p>
<p>Realising he'd been robbed of Minho's release, Jonghyun groaned and started crying again. His limbs dropped limply to the ground, and Minho could tell this could be the start of a fairly serious desperation tantrum.</p>
<p>Minho huffed silently as he tucked himself back into his jeans and pulled the fly up. "Don't you want Taemin?"</p>
<p>Jonghyun quieted immediately, although the tears kept streaming.</p>
<p>"That's better," Minho praised him for good measure. "Now you're nice and ready, aren't you, baby?"</p>
<p>Jonghyun nodded.</p>
<p>Minho nodded back decisively. He gathered Jonghyun up, lifting him easily. Jonghyun made an uneasy sound as they reached Minho's full height but quietened as Minho nudged the bathroom door open.</p>
<p>"You ready for him, Taemin?"</p>
<p>Taemin was luxuriating on the usual sofa in nothing but his open button up. He was absorbed in a shark documentary, hand curled idly around his stiff dick.</p>
<p>Minho rolled his eyes, but Taemin looked up when he noticed the vibration of his footfalls. He took in Jonghyun's floppy limbs and the wet on his inner thighs and smiled, switching off the television with a stab of his bare toe to the remote.</p>
<p>He opened his arms expectantly, and Minho delivered Jonghyun to him.</p>
<p>"Wow, he's so warm," Taemin said, stroking lazily over Jonghyun's sides. He settled the human over his lap, letting Minho hold his upper body up with firm hands around his shoulders.</p>
<p>"Wanna be like us?" Taemin purred, a hand caressing both of their dicks with one movement. "Would you like to stay with us, Jonghyun?"</p>
<p>Jonghyun gasped, mindlessly nodding as he ground down against Taemin's slender, marble-hard thighs. "Y-yes," he said, "yes, yes, please master, yes." In truth he could think of nothing but satisfying his aching cock and the wet hole Minho had stretched out for him.</p>
<p>Minho rolled his eyes again at the pure cliche that every fledgling tended to turn into, but he helped Taemin lift the human up a little as he slowly pushed his dick into him.</p>
<p>Jonghyun sucked in a breath and immediately surrendered to tears. "Thank you, master," he sobbed, clutching first at Taemin's tensed stomach, then clawing at Minho's forearms, then latching onto Taemin's loose shirt and using it to rock back and forth rapidly, working Taemin's dick deeper. "Thank you, thank you," he whispered incessantly through wet heaving sobs.</p>
<p>Taemin blinked up at Minho over Jonghyun's bowed head.</p>
<p>Minho shrugged back. "I guess I hyped him up?"</p>
<p>Taemin smirked a little as Jonghyun rolled his hips down independently and made himself squeak at the depth he'd fucked himself at.</p>
<p>"You got him nice and wet inside," Taemin said approvingly. He squeezed at Jonghyun's waist, pushing him down even harder. "It's not just lubricant you stuffed in there, huh?"</p>
<p>"He needed more than fingers," Minho admitted.</p>
<p>"He's going to attach to you, too, you know." Taemin laughed.</p>
<p>Minho shrugged a little, ducking his head. "He's a good kid."</p>
<p>Taemin just laughed, eyes crinkling into soft crescents.</p>
<p>"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up," Minho muttered. "What about our baby, huh?"</p>
<p>Jonghyun made a soft noise, recognising his name.</p>
<p>Taemin responded by brushing Minho's hands away. "I've got you," he murmured to Jonghyun.</p>
<p>Minho stepped back and settled on the arm of the sofa, still in reach, just in case.</p>
<p>Taking hold of Jonghyun's waist, Taemin set about easily lifting him and forcing him down the full length of his dick. Jonghyun let out a soft cry each time, his insides contracting and then being forced open again and again.</p>
<p>Before he could get properly used to that stretch, Taemin rolled him onto his back, legs spread wide enough to rest over the edges of both sides of the sofa, his left leg pushed up as high as his head. Taemin surged over him, his eyes seemingly black with dilation. The intrusion felt bigger now, swelling as it dragged out of Jonghyun. He reached mindlessly, not noticing his hands travelling down his belly until he brushed over his own sore dick, bouncing gently on his stomach in time with Taemin's firm thrusts.</p>
<p>Jonghyun thought he might be dying, it was all so overwhelming. Taemin felt unreasonably pleasurable inside him, hot and cold at the same time, like the venom they kept talking about was stinging and pricking at him. Taemin's slender hands were like cold steel on his thigh and hip, anchoring him through the torrent of strange sensations. Jonghyun could swear that he forgot to breathe more than once, Taemin's cold thrusts inside him urging him through the overwhelming moments without respite.</p>
<p>Jonghyun had never felt like this before, never. He <em>had</em> to be dying.</p>
<p>"Shall I come in you?" Taemin teased him finally, his dick still crammed deep inside.</p>
<p>Minho snorted, unable to hold back the incredulous sound.</p>
<p>Jonghyun wet his lips before he could voice an answer. "In my mouth," Jonghyun groaned, surprising himself. "Th-thirsty"</p>
<p>Taemin raised an eyebrow at Minho and nodded at the tense bowed line of Jonghyun's body.</p>
<p>Minho slid from his perch and shucked his pants once more. He was still hard from earlier.</p>
<p>Taemin upturned Jonghyun's face with the hand that wasn't pressing  Jonghyun's thigh against the back of the sofa.</p>
<p>Minho bit his lip as he grazed his swollen tip against Jonghyun's parted lips. The human gasped, eyes flying open at the hot touch.</p>
<p>"Taemin needs to come inside you, baby," Minho said, gently rubbing his dick over Jonghyun's lips. "But if you're still thirsty, I'll look after you," he assured him.</p>
<p>Jonghyun parted his lips, sucking Minho's dick into his mouth desperately.</p>
<p>Taemin laughed. He thrusted in deep to give Minho a chance to feel Jonghyun gasp around his length, testing that the boy could still navigate breathing around the desperate sucking he was administering to Minho's dick.</p>
<p>Jonghyun could barely concentrate hard enough to conceptualise the position they had put him him, both filling and using him in tandem. Minho stroked his cheek gently, letting Jonghyun control the pace.</p>
<p>Still pinned in place by Taemin's body, Jonghyun could barely manage more than a thirsty lap at Minho's dick. He stared up at Minho as he sucked, eyes watering as he took in Minho's encouraging smile.</p>
<p>"Almost there," Minho praised him, trying not to buck into Jonghyun's deliciously hot throat.</p>
<p>The cool mess overflowed Jonghyun's mouth, and he choked around both the come and Minho's pulsing cock. Minho pulled out carefully, tip still drizzling red tinged fluid all over Jonghyun's swollen lips and chin.</p>
<p>Jonghyun swallowed desperately, bringing his hands up to scrape every stray splash into his mouth. He reached for Minho's wet dick, and pulled it back into his mouth to lap coaxingly at the slit like it was the only font of water in a desert.</p>
<p>"Hey, hey," Minho groaned. He pushed Jonghyun's head back into the sofa. "There's no more for now, alright? Later."</p>
<p>Jonghyun whined, still rolling the taste of the venom laden come around in his mouth.</p>
<p>Taemin just chuckled as Minho sank against the edge of the sofa.</p>
<p>"You were ten times more annoying," he reminded Minho, hips pushing Jonghyun firmly into the cushions again.</p>
<p>"He's not annoying," Minho retorted, watching through hooded eyes as Taemin let Jonghyun take the full force of his thrusts. Already his occasional yelps of surprise or discomfort were becoming cries of pleasure as the mouthful of unfiltered venom began to take permanent effect.</p>
<p>Taemin pressed in deep again. "Here you are," he groaned. He paused, brows furrowing in an expression all too familiar to Minho.</p>
<p>Jonghyun let out a soft sob and tensed up, coming all over his own stomach. His hand went to his belly, pressing down desperately in his warm mess. Taemin's come, by contrast...it was freezing him from the inside out.</p>
<p>"It feels cold, doesn't it?" Taemin cooed. "There's a lot of it too."</p>
<p>Jonghyun nodded, eyes already slipping closed in exhaustion, hand still possessively clutched over his stomach.</p>
<p>"Has he had enough?" Minho asked Taemin. He knelt down and brushed hair out of Jonghyun's face. He was fast asleep.</p>
<p>"Enough to finish the change, yeah," Taemin said. He patted Jonghyun's little legs as he carefully pulled out and let his limbs settle more comfortably. "But nowhere near enough to sate that thirst." He smirked at Minho. "Luckily, I have you here to help with baby's feeding cycles."</p>
<p>Predictably, Taemin napped the rest of the night away, teeth pressed protectively against Jonghyun's bare skin.</p>
<p>When Jonghyun roused near dawn, Minho had to feed him again. His body was too weak to suck directly from Minho, so they settled for Minho jerking off carefully over his face, spilling most of his load between Jonghyun's swollen lips.</p>
<p>Jonghyun was a pain for the next two nights, constantly alternating between bitter crying jags, in which he would slap Minho away, and bouts of insatiable sex, in which he would latch onto Taemin with all four limbs and his half descended fangs, and refuse to allow him to pull out for hours.</p>
<p>Minho was impressed by Taemin's patience, until he realised that Jonghyun was still showing him up in retrospect. Taemin, for his part, seemed quite content with Jonghyun's attentions. Minho figured his suddenly heightened tolerance for physical affection had a lot to do with both being in reach of Jonghyun's sluggish pulse at all times, and the fact that Jonghyun could honestly care less that Taemin was marathoning Planet Earth documentaries as he idly fucked into him.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Jonghyun came out of his haze on the evening of the third day.</p>
<p>"I'm hungry," he muttered, kicking at the blankets Taemin had heaped over them.</p>
<p>"Good," Taemin hummed. "Minho, feed him..." He turned over when Jonghyun peeled his filthy body off of his, promptly burying himself in the dark blankets again.</p>
<p>Minho sighed and dislodged the floorboards above them. "Come on, baby," he said absently, clambering up and padding into the kitchen.</p>
<p>"Umm," Jonghyun said quietly, scuttling after him. "Can I have my clothes?"</p>
<p>Minho shook his head, taking down two mugs. "Taemin ruined them, sorry. You can wear some of mine."</p>
<p>Jonghyun accepted a cool mug of blood with trepidation, eyes flicking unhappily from the contents to Minho's lanky frame.</p>
<p>"I know," Minho said. "But trust me. Taemin's clothes are all bloodstained castoffs from the 1700s."</p>
<p>Jonghyun nodded in acceptance. He sipped suspiciously at the red liquid in his cup, his stomach turning until it touched his lips. Then he found himself gulping the entire cup and looking up for more.</p>
<p>Minho chuckled. "Good?"</p>
<p>Jonghyun licked his lips carefully. "Yeah. Would be better hot, though."</p>
<p>Minho sighed and opened the microwave. "You're just like your sire."</p>
<p>Partway through the next warm cup of blood, Taemin stumbled in. He slumped into a chair and beckoned at Jonghyun.</p>
<p>Jonghyun went immediately, swallowing down the last drops in his cup.</p>
<p>"You're almost done," Taemin proclaimed, pinching Jonghyun's side in satisfaction.</p>
<p>Jonghyun blinked. "Really?" He didn't feel....different. He felt well, which was a change from the week he'd spent in the living room, marinating in his own sweat and dry blood.</p>
<p>Actually, he felt surprisingly well when he considered that only a few hours ago he could vividly remember begging Taemin to fuck him for the third time in a half hour.</p>
<p>"Um," he said, while he had it in mind. "Please, could I shower?"</p>
<p>"Minho can bathe you again," Taemin said. "<em>After</em> I drink."</p>
<p>"We don't have a shower," Minho said apologetically.</p>
<p>Taemin pulled Jonghyun into his lap. Jonghyun found himself turning just so, and Taemin's teeth pierced him again. To his surprise, it didn't hurt at all. It was still arousing, Taemin penetrating him seemed to have that constant effect. However, there was nothing else but the simple sensations of a slight parting of the flesh and Taemin's cool lips and tongue encouraging the blood flow.</p>
<p>"Taemin and Key are old fashioned and high maintenance, in that order," Minho went on, rinsing the cups and putting them in the dishwasher as if Taemin did this every day. "They demanded a bathtub. Honestly I'm surprised we could even find somewhere to live."</p>
<p>Jonghyun whimpered slightly as Taemin bit a little deeper.</p>
<p>"Yeah, this city has a pretty serious housing shortage," Minho said, as if Jonghyun had contributed to the conversation. "You would not believe the deposits the banks are asking. Honestly, you can't afford to live if you don't have flatmates."</p>
<p>Taemin grasped Jonghyun's well used dick in the hand not cupping his face. Jonghyun came immediately, filling his sire's palm.</p>
<p>Taemin made a sound of approval into Jonghyun’s wound, wasting no time in rubbing the fluids thoroughly into his flexing stomach.</p>
<p>Jonghyun sighed, going slack as Taemin finished up and carefully retracted his fangs.</p>
<p>“Good baby,” he praised him, licking his lips clean. “Minho?”</p>
<p>“Alright,” Minho groaned. He put his cup and Jonghyun’s into the sink, then scooped Jonghyun up, unable to hide his grin any longer.</p>
<p>“Get dressed, it's already ten,” Minho called over his shoulder. “I washed all your clothes yesterday while you were busy.”</p>
<p>“Let's clean you next,” he cooed at Jonghyun, who was now just cognizant enough to frown at the way Minho was cradling him.</p>
<p>“You're doing so well,” Minho went on in the bathroom. “I’m so glad you're staying, Jjongie.”</p>
<p>The tap water started steaming. Minho nudged the plug into place and let the tub start to fill, warm water pooling around Jonghyun’s bare feet.</p>
<p>“I love Taemin, but he's so uncouth. Back when he first turned me, he used to spit on the floor. <em>Indoors</em>.”</p>
<p>Jonghyun raised his eyebrows. “Gross.”</p>
<p>“I know, right?” Minho said, taking a bottle of lavender scented bubble bath and a clean hand towel out of the cabinet.</p>
<p>“Okay, get in. You’ll feel much more alive when you're clean.”</p>
<p>Jonghyun nodded and slid into the foamy water.</p>
<p>The evening passed in a slow procession of domesticity. Minho helped Jonghyun into some comically long sweatpants and shirt, then helped in into the living room, where he settled him on the sofa beside Taemin, who was watching a television show about Americans who feared the end of the world, and were stockpiling soda appropriately.</p>
<p>Taemin conceded to wearing some clean sweatpants as well after a chiding from Minho during a commercial break. Of the rest of the night, however, Jonghyun remembered little of note beyond Minho coming in and out with stacks of laundry, the cool breeze from an open back room somewhere out of sight, and the softness of the blanket Minho laid over him as he slipped in and out of pleasant half sleep.</p>
<p>Taemin seemed particularly benevolent as dawn crept closer. They settled in the nest under the floorboards as early as five thirty.</p>
<p>"You may have one present," Taemin proclaimed.</p>
<p>"I'd like to go home, please." Jonghyun said, yawning.</p>
<p>Minho shot him a hurt look, and he realised what he had said. Jonghyun bowed his head immediately, expecting punishment.</p>
<p>Astoundingly, Taemin just stroked his hair, considering. "Alright," he said.</p>
<p>"What," Minho said, sitting up slightly on his elbows in the crawl space to stare at Taemin.</p>
<p>Taemin shrugged. "He should go out and decide where he'd like to live his afterlife."</p>
<p>Jonghyun sank into Taemin's side in relief and gratitude. He pawed at Taemin's shirt, and shuffled around so he could rest his face on Taemin's cold thigh as he instinctively and gratefully suckled at his soft dick.</p>
<p>After Jonghyun had satisfied his thirst he fell into a contented daze against Taemin's cool side.</p>
<p>"He doesn't know how to feed," Minho whispered sharply. "He's not even weaned off of our venom yet."</p>
<p>"I know," Taemin said, eyes closed.</p>
<p>"He might attack his family."</p>
<p>"Hmm," Taemin shrugged. "Maybe."</p>
<p>"Someone will expose him to the sun," Minho hissed desperately.</p>
<p>"I suppose it could happen," Taemin agreed, still smiling.</p>
<p>Minho flopped back into the blankets. He reached for Jonghyun's hip, and stroked it fondly. He still had the last lingering traces of warmth, his human functions still grinding to a halt as Taemin and Minho's venom saturated every part of his body, swiftly altering every cell.</p>
<p>Jonghyun didn't even stir in his sleep. Even his heart barely beat more than a couple of times a minute. He was the picture of a perfectly turned vampire fledgling. How could Taemin even think of letting him venture outside on his own at this stage of development?</p>
<p>"You had better know something I don't," he threatened Taemin, giving in to trust.</p>
<p>Taemin chuckled lowly.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Jonghyun woke up early that evening, not earlier than Taemin - that was an impossibility even for Minho - but earlier than Minho.  Minho refolded the blankets neatly, set the floorboards in order, and dragged himself into the kitchen for a cup of refrigerator blood to find the two of them canoodling at the kitchen table.</p>
<p>Minho eyed them grumpily as he slopped blood into his usual mug. Taemin was having Jonghyun's throat for breakfast, one arm wrapped securely around Jonghyun's waist.  </p>
<p>The other wrist at Jonghyun's mouth. The fledgling was making an awful mess of it with his still blunt teeth. By the looks of the neatly sliced opening, Taemin must have made for him initially. Jonghyun was wriggling as he lapped at the thick blood that oozed out, clearly enjoying his first real experience of feeding.</p>
<p>Minho scowled, sure that Taemin had only bothered to start to wean him early to give Jonghyun a better chance outside. Taemin wasn't usually the type to remember flippant promises, especially when they were as ludicrous as what Jonghyun had requested.</p>
<p>"You're in a bad mood," Taemin said in a singsong voice, pulling his bloodied mouth free.</p>
<p>"You're a terrible sire," Minho grumbled into his cup.</p>
<p>Taemin just wriggled his black eyebrows through his fringe at him, his face one big gory grin.</p>
<p>Jonghyun continued to slurp greedily at Taemin's wrist.</p>
<p>"Hey," Taemin said, shaking him loose. "Haven't you had enough, you greedy baby?"</p>
<p>Jonghyun turned big eyes on him and Minho in turn. "I'm hungry," he whined.</p>
<p>"He is short," Minho allowed, weakened by the plaintive stare, "he's probably malnourished."</p>
<p>Taemin snorted, and Jonghyun was clearly torn between an expression of grave offence and hunger judging by the way he began hopefully eyeing Minho's wrists.</p>
<p>“Feed him,” Taemin demanded, and that was how they spent the next two days, gorging the fledgling with blood.</p>
<p>Near the end of the second night, Taemin smacked his lips, satisfied, and peered up at Minho's kitchen clock.</p>
<p>"Alright, Jonghyun. Off you go," Taemin said, flapping his hand. "Shut the door properly on the way out."</p>
<p>Minho turned away, pink tears glistening in his eyes. "Goodbye, good luck," he said shortly. Then he sniffled.</p>
<p>Jonghyun chewed his lip, feeling the connection between them tugging at the doorstep. It was a struggle to step outside into the night breeze.</p>
<p>Then he promptly forgot all about them, overcome by the thrill of freedom.</p>
<p>All Jonghyun could think of were his mother and sister, his dog, his bedroom, the warm smell of his worn flannelette sheets. He travelled with purpose, although he could not have told anyone the direction in which his house lay. When Jonghyun walked into the familiar surroundings of his street, he let out a sob and ran full pelt the last five hundred metres to his door.</p>
<p>Then he composed himself, wiped his eyes, and rang the doorbell.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>"Is that my son?" His mother said, rubbing sleep out of  her eyes.</p>
<p>"Yes, umma. I'm so sorry, umma," Jonghyun answered her, truly regretful for having worried her.</p>
<p>"Come inside," his mother shrieked, throwing herself at him in a hug. "You're freezing, Jonggie, where on earth have you been?"</p>
<p>"I'm sorry, umma," Jonghyun said again, tears springing to his eyes as she pushed him into an armchair and clattered into the kitchen to boil some water.</p>
<p>"Jonghyun?"</p>
<p>Jonghyun looked up from his contemplation of the old frayed blanket that lived on the sofa.</p>
<p>"Noona," he smiled at her, blinking rapidly.</p>
<p>His sister squirmed into the chair alongside him. "You're freezing!" she said, pulling the blanket around them.  "Where did you go, Jonggie? I told umma you were probably staying with friends."</p>
<p>Jonghyun choked on a giggle. "Yeah, I was staying with friends."</p>
<p>"You're terrible," his sister said fondly. She stroked his hair back. "These friends don't even have a hairbrush, huh? Next time, just tell us before you disappear. You know umma and I don't mind who your special friends are, right? We just need to know that you're safe."</p>
<p>Jonghyun almost started crying in earnest. "I know," he said, sniffing. He squeezed his sister tightly.</p>
<p>"Ouch!" She laughed, struggling until he loosened his grip. "Have you been working out with your new friends?!"</p>
<p>"I guess," Jonghyun said. He pulled her against his side again and laid his head on her warm shoulder until their mother came in with a tray of steaming cups.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Jonghyun lay in his bed. He'd turned his lights off, out of consideration for his family. They were sleeping, even if he couldn't. By contrast, he was wide awake. The day before, his mother had been more than willing to let him sleep the day away in the pitch black of his bedroom. All the same, it had been terrifying. He'd woken from the dead sleep Taemin and Minho had accustomed him to several times during the day. Every stirring had him bolt upright in fear, his mouth sharper than usual, his  head woozy and aching as if he had sunstroke.</p>
<p>No one entered his closed door, but he knew they could, and that was enough.</p>
<p>Jonghyun straightened his blankets again and closed his eyes. Perhaps just resting them would be enough, even if he couldn't truly sleep in the night.</p>
<p>There was a soft scritching at the door, and he startled until he remembered that he was at home, and it could only be Roo.</p>
<p>Jonghyun went to pick her up, closing the door after her. He held her close, wondering at her wriggling heat. Was this what he'd felt like to the vampires? A small warm pet?</p>
<p>Jonghyun cast his eyes away from Roo's innocent face in embarrassment. They had insisted on calling him pet names, and- well, he didn't like to think about what he'd done with them under their thrall while he held poor sweet Roo.</p>
<p>Jonghyun rolled them into his bed with a huff. Roo scrambled excitedly up to the pillow where she liked to lay on her back like a human, tongue lolling out as Jonghyun chuckled and tucked the blanket up to her fluffy chin.</p>
<p>Jonghyun was having to actually muffle his laughter as Roo kicked playfully at the sheets, when there was another scritch at the door.</p>
<p>"Hey, Roo, shhh," Jonghyun scolded automatically. Then he froze.</p>
<p>There was a growl, and this one really was Roo. The scritch came again, and it was then that Jonghyun realised the sound was coming from his walk in wardrobe, not the bedroom door.</p>
<p>He turned slowly, fingers reflexively curling sharply inwards, keeping them safely distant from Roo's chubby little body.</p>
<p>It was very dark, but he'd found that he could see perfectly clearly in the pitch black these days. The wardrobe door just just lightly ajar, and it was swinging infinitesimally inward.</p>
<p>"Come out," Jonghyun whispered.</p>
<p>Roo whimpered at his low tone.</p>
<p>The door swung in properly, and for a moment Taemin's name was on the tip of his tongue, before the figure stepped across the threshold.</p>
<p>"You're different," the figure accused him, jabbing a finger.</p>
<p>Jonghyun blinked. "N-noona?" This person was taller than his sister though, and their voice had a harsher almost nasally quality to it.</p>
<p>They snorted. "You didn't get any smarter, though, huh."</p>
<p>"Who are you?" Jonghyun said, standing up slowly as the stranger stepped closer. He saw now that it was a tall man, perhaps the same age as himself, with sharp cheekbones and lips that curled up at the corners. He was wearing about four different layers of clothing, all of which escaped any kind of definition of colour. They seemed to alter from every angle, and every shadow.</p>
<p>"-and what the hell are you doing in my wardrobe?" he added.</p>
<p>The stranger grinned slyly. "Kibum," he said. "And I'm just dropping by on my rounds. You've actually thrown quite a large spanner in the works."</p>
<p>"Your rounds?" Jonghyun said, apprehensively. He reached for the light switch.</p>
<p>"Don't touch it," Kibum hissed suddenly, smile gone. "I want to get to the bottom of this."</p>
<p>Jonghyun pulled his hand back, and rested it on Roo instead. She was shivering under the blanket, but nestled a little closer when he stroked her.</p>
<p>"I'm guessing you're not a burglar?" Jonghyun said, feeling strangely calm now.</p>
<p>"I'm a boogeyman," Kibum admitted. "But you're not a twenty four year old human who is scared of the dark anymore, are you?" He sounded rather put out about it.</p>
<p>"I've never been scared of the dark!" Jonghyun lied.</p>
<p>"Sure, keep telling yourself that," Kibum said, waving his hand. He turned to the wardrobe and hissed. "You might as well come out, this one's a dead loss. Literally."</p>
<p>Jonghyun's eyes widened as yet another man stepped out of the wardrobe. This one at least looked slightly embarrassed as he crept across the carpet. He was handsome in an interesting way. His body proportions were higglety pigglety, like he'd been cobbled together from both the pieces of a muscular and a slender man.</p>
<p>"Sorry," the man said, rubbing at his neck. "I'm Jinki, I didn't mean to have you see me like this."</p>
<p>Kibum laughed sharply at that, eyes narrowing. "Can't spook you, can't repurpose you, can't even eat you," he complained.</p>
<p>"W-what do you mean?" Jonghyun asked.</p>
<p>"You're a vampire," Kibum said, exasperated.</p>
<p>"We're ghouls," Jinki said apologetically, at the same time.</p>
<p>"Uh," Jonghyun said.</p>
<p>"Who turned you?" Kibum demanded after glaring at Jinki momentarily.</p>
<p>"Taemin?" Jonghyun said, uncertain whether they would know who he was talking about.</p>
<p>Kibum's jaw dropped.</p>
<p>"Oh..." Jinki said. He frowned. "That's so petty of him."</p>
<p>"Petty?!" Kibum shrieked.</p>
<p>Jonghyun jolted to his feet and waved his hand wildly at Kibum, trying to get him to shut up.</p>
<p>"He <em>knew</em> we'd picked this one out, he knew the shortlist, he knew you wanted parts from this one!"</p>
<p>"Do you...know Taemin?" Jonghyun asked, incredulous.</p>
<p>"Know him? I supplement that lazy piece of shit's income. He lives in my <em>house</em>!" Kibum raged. "He has no appreciation for what we ghouls have to do to <em>live</em>."</p>
<p>"It's fine, really, Kibum," Jinki reassured him with a press to his shoulder. Kibum pressed his lips together grimly, clearly having resorted to internal screaming.</p>
<p>More concerning to Jonghyun was the fact that Jinki was missing a hand. The arm he had placed on Kibum's shoulder ended at a conspicuously open stump. He could see the bones and everything.</p>
<p>"Oh heck, where's it gone," Jinki sighed, clearly just having noticed the absence as well.</p>
<p>"Who cares," Kibum moaned, squatting down in the middle of the room, fists clenched on top of his head. "Taemin always steals the best ones."</p>
<p>"No, he doesn't," Jinki said, calmly walking around the perimeter of the room, peering under Jonghyun's discarded clothes.</p>
<p>"Are you - looking for your hand?" Jonghyun asked faintly, as Jinki wandered closer, nose in the air, sniffing.</p>
<p>"Yeah," Jinki said, stopping by the bed. "Is that? Hmm." He lifted the blanket, uncovering Roo. "Ah."</p>
<p>"That's just Roo," Jonghyun said hurriedly. "She's not tasty at all. She needs a bath, actually."</p>
<p>Jinki smiled. "Look," he said, pointing with his remaining hand. "She's getting pats."</p>
<p>"I'm not-" Jonghyun started before realising that although he was indeed not patting Roo, she was in fact being very elaborately chin scratched by a delicate human hand. "Oh," Jonghyun said, swallowing hard against creeping horror.</p>
<p>"Hand," Jinki said, fondly.</p>
<p>It seemed to <em>look</em> up at him for a moment. It gave Roo a last stroke and scampered to its owner, somehow seamlessly rejoining itself to the arm it had deserted.</p>
<p>Jonghyun shook off a shudder and gave Roo a pat of his own, just to check that she was alright.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, it seemed that Kibum had recovered from his temper tantrum.</p>
<p>"I'm so fucking angry," Kibum muttered. "Fine. Let's just go home. I guess Taemin wins this round."</p>
<p>"Great idea," Jinki smiled. He skipped to the wardrobe door on his ill matching legs, and opened it with a flourish.</p>
<p>Jonghyun wasn't entirely comfortable with seeing in the dark yet, but he was pretty sure that the room through the door was definitely not his walk in closet. There was a conspicuous lack of heel lifts littering the floor.</p>
<p>Jinki stepped through. Kibum was about to follow him when he looked back at Jonghyun impatiently.</p>
<p>"Well, hurry up, then. You look hungry. You baby vampires are always a bit useless. Maybe Taemin will appreciate a favour for once."</p>
<p>"But-" Jonghyun looked at his bedroom and at Roo's slowly rising chest.</p>
<p>"They'll be fine," Kibum said impatiently. "Open your door so the dog can get out and grab some clothes. You can come back later, can't you?"</p>
<p>"Really?" Jonghyun said.</p>
<p>"Taemin is literally the least responsible old person I have ever met," Kibum said. "Sometimes he even forgets he made Minho. I don't know how, seeing as that loser never leaves the house."</p>
<p>Jonghyun took a last look at his room, and opened the bedroom door wide enough for Roo to squeeze out.</p>
<p>"I am - I am very thirsty," he admitted in a small voice.</p>
<p> </p>
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